How "light" can a rule-lite game be? At what point does it become so light that it becomes boring to play?
How "light" can a rule-lite game be? At what point does it become so light that it becomes boring to play?
Parker Ward
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Asher Taylor
Mainly at the point where there are zero options for changing the round-to-round gameplay.
If we're talking the typical TTRPG anyway.
Lightest you can get for combat I believe is making an opposed check, winner deals damage.
So we flip a coin, loser suffers one point of damage.
That's pretty dull.
Eli Gonzalez
This is basically correct, also consider your audience - a crowd of drunk friends can enjoy a shitty meme game because of the social factor (See cards against humanity, etc), whereas a lot of the folks who frequent this board see some level of complexity, or even impenetrability to casuals, to be a requirement of good game design.
Alexander Perez
Hunter Carter
Are you talking about games in general or RPGs in particular?
Because freeform roleplay is just as fun as rules-heavy shit as long as it's run by a competent GM.
Lucas Ramirez
Most people who frequent this board are also generally snobs who are so up their own ass that they actually need a compelling reason to enjoy themselves.
Also, isn't doesn't every tabletop game in existence have a social factor?
Joshua James
>Also, doesn't every tabletop game in existence have a social factor?
Don't know what I was thinking.
Noah Myers
It depends on the kind of game the system is aimed to create. Everyone Is John is pretty light on rules but it works because its supposed to have short games and each one as the potential to be different because of the player goals and interactions even though mechanically little is changing from game to game. The basic mechanics for interactions from Everyone Is John would not carry a game designed to tell epic stories of heroism across multiple sessions, just like you wouldn't bother designing a meaty system for 40 minute one shots.
Carson Kelly
By that logic, D&D is too light if I'm not playing a caster?
Julian Morris
>playing D&D
Jose Gutierrez
most games i play tend to go very rules lite outside of combat or complex manoeuvres. Social is mostly pure role play unless someone says "go on, roll it" for silly funnies
Noah Hernandez
To be quite honest the most fun I've had in a game was with a group of friends playing a superhero-esque fudge dice game. No character sheets, just a defined very broadly usable power that isn't that strong generally.
Add to that just planning using things like real-life locations we know, with their delved up building blueprints, etc. etc.
Shit was cash.
Kevin Brown
Don't you start.
Parker Mitchell
The challenge of play does not depend on a superfluity of rules.
Rules aren't the source for creativity, either, although rulebooks often have suggestions to spark it. I kind of think people who run rules-lite have to do more creating to make it work.
Henry Bennett
You could go full freeform and only have rules about how players should behave
Ayden Peterson
Depends on the group, goals, game themes and
DESU even total freeform won't be explicitly "boring" if done well, but a bit of rules and rolls would still spice it up significantly. You just need to find that sweet point where rules contribute something to the fun instead of being either clunky and detrimential or non-existent. But this spot varies greatly
Chase Garcia
The second the rules get lighter than rolemaster the game should be automatically trashed.
Asher Stewart
The second it doesn't do what it set out doing in an entertaining manner.
This threshold changes from group to group, and sometimes even between games.
Kayden Watson
>All these faggots who can't into freeform RPing.
You don't need a system to RPG. I've run a Kingdom Hearts community for 8 years without rolling any dice.
Leo Mitchell
I don't have any images to convey my sheer disgust, but just know that I highly disapprove.
Samuel Brooks
Yeah, this. Tbh even though I've spent twenty years doing different TTRPG stuff the best straight RP experiences I've ever had have been in the Mass Effect freeform rp chat I joined back when ME1 came out.
Jose Turner
Too bad faggot, Me and my players still had tons of fun.
Henry Brown
I've played freeform with a single d6 to decide outcomes in uncertain situations. The setting was fun and the characters were fun and so we managed to carve out a pretty enjoyable story.
So as usual, depends on your goal, your group and the tone of the game.